Sandpoint Not Willing To Share Fest Residents Urge Organizers To Change Their Tune

These days, Festival at Sandpoint organizers feel a bit like the biblical King Solomon - the one who threatened to cut a baby in half to appease two feuding mothers.

In this case, the baby is the 14-year-old Festival at Sandpoint.

The feud is over plans to split the festival’s three-week concert series between Sandpoint and Kootenai County. That decision was made last week.

Festival board members have endured verbal browbeatings by business owners and residents who want them to change their minds.

Some residents are calling for festival executive director Connie Berghan’s job. Others talk of starting their own festival if even one concert is moved from Sandpoint.

Lorraine Bowman, a former festival board member, says the community that raised the festival is being betrayed.

In an open letter to festival organizers, she wrote: “If you want to take your dog and pony show on the road, do so. Just don’t let the door hit you in the butt on your way out of town.”

Bowman said many business people have called about her statement - to thank her.

“The festival has lost its mission and alienated a lot of people with this decision,” she said. “People think there needs to be some new leadership.”

Berghan expected some angst - but not the bitter thrashing that’s emerged. On Thursday, board members met privately to rehash their decision and assess the fallout.

“There is a total misperception that we intend to leave Sandpoint altogether. That is absolutely not the truth,” Berghan said before the meeting.

Festival organizers said the split concert series will ensure the festival survives here. Moving, most likely to Post Falls, will attract a larger audience, allow flexible scheduling of performers, and prevent a competing festival from popping up.

Post Falls has already talked about hatching its own festival, as has Coeur d’Alene with help from Coeur d’Alene Resort owner Duane Hagadone, Berghan said.

“If a festival shows up in Kootenai County, and we believe one will, it will be in direct competition with us,” she said. “It will cut off our supply of audience members and some financial support.”

Rather than compete with Kootenai County promoters and face extinction, the festival hopes to form a partnership.

“I think it’s going to take support from this entire region to keep the festival alive,” said board member Bill Love.

Restaurant owner Bob Bradley isn’t buying the festival’s logic. He’s a member of the Chamber of Commerce committee geared toward keeping the entire festival here. He calls the split “totally unacceptable.”

The move will economically devastate businesses and alienate hundreds of volunteers who help make the festival happen, he said.

“To have the festival stripped away from us is a slap in the face. It should go back to what it used to be.”

But what the festival used to be was an organization saddled with debt. Sparsely attended but expensive symphony concerts broke the festival bank account. Big-name acts were booked to draw crowds and make up for the losses.

“What we are doing is going back to the same number of concerts in Sandpoint, which is what the community asked for,” Berghan said. “But we never want to go back to being an organization that is in the red.”

It’s an expensive program that could fold if the festival doesn’t take part of its show on the road, Love said. The move also appeases sports

boosters who have battled the festival over use of Memorial Field, the main stage site. Memorial Field neighbors, who complained of too many concerts, noise and traffic will also get some relief.

“We think this is a win-win scenario,” Berghan said. “It solves a lot of our problems and we still positively impact both communities.”

, DataTimes